Evaluation of the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Plastic Waste as Environmental Nuisance of Students at Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam

The study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices towards plastic waste as environmental nuisance of students at Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam using 240 students from four training units including Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, College of Engineering Technology, School of Economics and College of Agriculture. The results showed that students of faculties/schools/colleges were relatively aware of the harmful effects of plastic waste on the environment and human health. However, students still use a variety of plastic products including plastic cups and bottles (accounting for 27%), styrofoam boxes and plastic bags (25%), plastic straws (accounting for 21%), and plastic food containers and food wraps (19%) and plastic tableware sets (accounting for 8%) with 1-3 products per day, mainly due to convenience and initiative supplier's offer. It is estimated that the amount of plastic waste daily generated at Can Tho University is about 748 kg. However, a relatively high percentage of students are very willing to implement regulations and community activities to control and limit plastic waste generated (ranging from 45-93%), but plastic waste sorting was limited accounting for 42%. Students are also very willing to use environmentally friendly products to replace plastic products ranging from 60-74%, showing the feasibility of implementing relevant solutions. There are four groups of factors affecting students' practices to reduce the use of plastic products, including (1) the popularity of substitute products, (2) policies and legislation, (3) groups of relatives and friends, and (4) influential groups in society. A number of solutions to improve students' awareness and practice of using plastic products have been proposed

Current Situation of Municipal Solid Waste Generation in Ca Mau City, Vietnam

The study was implemented to assess the current generation, collection and management status of municipal solid waste in 8 Ward and Ly Van Lam Commune, Ca Mau city. The household survey method was applied by randomly interviewing 60 households, 10 collectors and 2 managers in August 2022. The results recorded that the average MSW generation rate in the study area was 0.60 kg/person/day. The total amount incurred in Ly Van Lam Commune was 70.70 kg/day, lower than 8 Ward (83 kg/day). The MSW in the study area was mainly biodegradable organic and recyclable waste, accounting for 69.22% and 24.44% of the total waste. Meanwhile, others and hazardous waste accounted for a low proportion. The classification of MSW at source had not been carried out synchronously in the study area, the collection rate was only 68.33% and it was treated at the garbage treatment plant in Ca Mau city. In areas where garbage had not been collected, people treated MSW by burning, burying, or disposing of it into the environment. Most people in the study area had quite good awareness of MSW, but there was still limited awareness in some households about the impacts of MSW. Therefore, it was necessary to strictly handle violations that cause environmental pollution, improve traffic routes and guide people to separate waste at source to raise people’s responsibility in solid waste management

Current Generation and Management of Domestic Solid Waste at Nhon Nghia Village, Phong Dien District, Can Tho City, Vietnam

This study was conducted to investigate the generation, composition and management of domestic solid waste in Nhon Nghia commune, Phong Dien district, Can Tho city in Vietnam. Households, garbage collectors and environmental managers were interviewed for the required information. The results showed that the rate of domestic solid waste generation is 0.65 kg/person/day with the total amount of domestic waste generated 3,998 tons/year. In which, 74.32% of waste is biodegradable and recyclable. The separation of waste at source in the study area is relatively good, accounting for 67%, most of the waste is classified into waste that can be reused and recycled, accounting for 45%. Waste collection and transportation system in Nhon Nghia commune has not been completed since among the four studied hamlets, only two hamlets, Nhon Hung A and Nhon Khanh A, have solid waste collection services. The results presented that the majority of households self-treat their waste by burning, burying (23%) and discharging directly into the environment (27%). The remaining amount of domestic solid waste is treated at the landfill. People's awareness about the negative impacts that solid waste brings to the environment and health is relatively high. It is forecasted that by 2025, the amount of domestic solid waste will increase along with the population growth rate, increasing from 3,998 tons/year (in 2022) to 4,164 tons/year (in 2025). Strengthening segregation at source, improving the collection and transportation system, raising public awareness and strictly handling violations of discharge should be done to improve the efficiency of domestic solid waste management

Evaluating Relationship between Surface Water Quality and Zooplankton Diversity in Coastal Areas of Tien Giang Province, Vietnam

The zooplankton diversity is the most important ecological parameter for water quality assessment, as these small creatures are sensitive to any changes in water quality, hence the objective of this study as to evaluate the relationship between surface water quality and zooplankton diversity in the coastal areas of Tien Giang province, Vietnam using appropriate standard methods. The results showed that the coastal water quality had high concentrations of suspended solids, ammonium and coliforms. A total of 71 zooplankton species with a total density ranging from 3,219,383 to 24,993,634 individuals/m3 were identified. Among the zooplankton species, Copepoda nauplius appeared at all monitoring stations, predominating with a density ranging from 740,800 to 7,555,250 individuals/m3. The values of the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H') ranged from 1.54 to 2.37, reflecting the coastal water quality in the study area from polluted to mildly polluted. The coastal water variables of pH, salinity, DO, NH4+-N and coliform were closely correlated with the density of zooplankton species. The relationship between surface water quality and zooplankton diversity could be a basis for selecting biological indicators to monitor coastal water quality

Groundwater resources assessment using integrated geophysical techniques in the southwestern region of Peninsular Malaysia.

Combined geophysical techniques such as multi-electrode resistivity, induced polarization, and borehole geophysical techniques were carried out on volcano-sedimentary rocks in the north of Gemas as part of the groundwater resource’s investigations. The result identifies four resistivity units: the tuffaceous mudstone, tuffaceous sandstone, the tuff bed, and the shale layer. Two types of aquifer systems in terms of storage were identified within the area: one within a fracture system (tuff), which is the leaky area through which vertical flow of groundwater occurs, and an intergranular property of the sandy material of the aquifer which includes sandstone and tuffaceous sandstone. The result also reveals that the aquifer occupies a surface area of about 3,250,555 m2 with a mean depth of 43.71 m and a net volume of 9.798 × 107 m3. From the approximate volume of the porous zone (28 %) and the total aquifer volume, a usable capacity of (274.339 ± 30.177) × 107 m3 of water in the study area can be deduced. This study provides useful information that can be used to develop a much broader understanding of the nature of groundwater potential in the area and their relationship with the local geology

A whole cell pathway screen reveals seven novel chemosensitizers to combat chloroquine resistant malaria

Due to the widespread prevalence of resistant parasites, chloroquine (CQ) was removed from front-line antimalarial chemotherapy in the 1990s despite its initial promise of disease eradication. Since then, resistance-conferring mutations have been identified in transporters such as the PfCRT, that allow for the efflux of CQ from its primary site of action, the parasite digestive vacuole. Chemosensitizing/ chemoreversing compounds interfere with the function of these transporters thereby sensitizing parasites to CQ once again. However, compounds identified thus far have disappointing in vivo efficacy and screening for alternative candidates is required to revive this strategy. In this study, we propose a simple and direct means to rapidly screen for such compounds using a fluorescent-tagged CQ molecule. When this screen was applied to a small library, seven novel chemosensitizers (octoclothepin, methiothepin, metergoline, loperamide, chlorprothixene, L-703,606 and mibefradil) were quickly elucidated, including two which showed greater potency than the classical chemosensitizers verapamil and desipramine

Was the fine-structure constant variable over cosmological time?

This paper has been formally withdrawn on ethical grounds because the article contains extensive and repeated instances of plagiarism. EPL treats all identified evidence of plagiarism in the published articles most seriously. Such unethical behaviour will not be tolerated under any circumstance. Cosmological variation of the fine-structure constant (α) depends on the redshifts of quasars. Using the emission (absorption) systems in the spectra of distant quasars, we investigate the effect of the cosmology variability in the value of the fine-structure constant (α) dependent on the redshifts of quasars during the evolution of Universe. We obtain optical spectra of fine-structure transitions in [NeIII], [NeV], [OIII, [OI], and [SII] multiplets from a sample of 14 Seyfert 1.5 galaxies in the low-z range. 0.035 < z < 0.281. Each source and each multiplet is independently analyzed to ascertain possible errors. Averaging over our sample, we obtain a conservative value $\alpha ^{2}$(t)/$\alpha ^{2}$(0) = 0.999965 ± 0.00005529

Risk detection solution on road based on image processing and deep learning

Abstract Safety for pupils on the way to school is always the care of their parents. Because of on the way to school pupils can be meet many risks and dangerous issues as accident, violence, kidnapper, and stranger. Thus, their parents always desire to know the status of pupils on the way to school, and they also desire a solution to detect risks on the road and generate warning to pupils. In this paper, we would like to propose a risk detection solution on the road for pupils based on object detection, face detection and distance estimation. The proposed solution uses the techniques of image processing and deep learning to detect dangerous objects, human face and estimate the distance from the detected objects to pupil to give necessary warnings. Experimental results on the road verified that the proposed solution works well, and it have been responded to the purpose of risk detection on the road for pupils in the real

Automated phenotyping for early vigour of field pea seedlings in controlled environment by colour imaging technology.

Early vigour of seedlings is a beneficial trait of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) that contributes to weed control, water use efficiency and is likely to contribute to yield under certain environments. Although breeding is considered the most effective approach to improve early vigour of field pea, the absence of a robust and high-throughput phenotyping tool to dissect this complex trait is currently a major obstacle of genetic improvement programs to address this issue. To develop this tool, separate trials on 44 genetically diverse field pea genotypes were conducted in the automated plant phenotyping platform of Plant Phenomics Victoria, Horsham and in the field, respectively. High correlation between estimated plant parameters derived from the automated phenotyping platform and important early vigour traits such as shoot biomass, leaf area and plant height indicated that the derived plant parameters can be used to predict vigour traits in field pea seedlings. Plant growth analysis demonstrated that the "broken-stick" model fitted well with the growth pattern of all field pea genotypes and can be used to determine the linear growth phase. Further analysis suggested that the estimated plant parameters collected at the linear growth phase can effectively differentiate early vigour across field pea genotypes. High correlation between normalised difference vegetation indices captured from the field trial and estimated shoot biomass and top-view area confirmed the consistent performance of early vigour field pea genotypes under controlled and field environments. Overall, our results demonstrated that this robust screening tool is highly applicable and will enable breeding programs to rapidly identify early vigour traits and utilise germplasm to contribute to the genetic improvement of field peas

Artemisinin for treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria: is there a place for monotherapy?

The efficacy of artemisinin monotherapy was studied in 227 patients with uncomplicated falciparum malaria. They all received artemisinin at t = 0 hr, t = 8 hr, and thereafter once daily; treatment was extended at random until they had taken either 5 days of artemisinin followed by 2 days of placebo (A5), or 7 days (A7) of artemisinin. The adult artemisinin dose was 500 mg; children aged < 15 years received 10 mg/kg per dose. The median (range) parasite clearance time was 39 (8-112) hr for A5 and 43 (38-104) hr for A7 (P = 0.085). The recrudescence rates were similar between the groups. The lowest parasite count achieved during treatment (Pterm) was associated with the occurrence of recrudescence (P = 0.046, Cox regression model); it was lower for patients with a radical cure or late recrudescence than for early recrudescence (P = 0.034, t-test). Artemisinin monotherapy may offer rapid recovery and fast parasite clearance, but recrudescence is frequent. Extending the duration of monotherapy from 5 days to 7 days does not reduce recrudescenc